Squinting, Samiah leaned forward until the laptop was only a few inches from her face. She could hear her mother’s voice in her head, yelling at her not to put her eyes too close to the screen or else she’d burn her eyeballs. Too late. Between her phone, laptop, tablet, and two computer monitors at work, she spent at least 80 percent of her day staring at a retina screen. The damage was already done.
An anxious flutter rolled through her stomach as she examined the API she’d spent much of the past few weeks building and tweaking, then tweaking and rebuilding. This was it. The deciding factor when it came to making the deadline for the Future in Innovation Tech Conference. She’d already accepted that if she wasn’t able to validate the JSON API schema, she wouldn’t bother signing up for one of the coveted spots at FITC when it came to Austin in the spring.
The closest she’d ever come to experiencing something akin to a panic attack swept through her as her finger hovered over the keyboard. The countless hours she’d pumped into creating this app, the dreams she’d attached to it; it all came down to this single component.
She crossed her fingers, then pressed ENTER and watched as the colorful pinwheel turned and turned and turned on the screen.
The screen blinked and when it came back, her schema had been validated.
“Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod!” Samiah jumped up from the sofa and slid across her living room floor in her socks, underwear, and shirt, à la Tom Cruise in Risky Business. It felt as if a balloon filled with glitter had just exploded inside her chest.
Her immediate thought was to share her news with Daniel. Her fingers fumbled as she typed out the text message and sent him a snapshot of her laptop screen.
He replied with a GIF of a man break-dancing, his tracksuit, thick gold chain, and Kangol cap straight out of 1985. Samiah burst out laughing. The reply was so on brand.
A few minutes later, her phone vibrated with another text from Daniel: BUZZ ME UP.
She called him. “Are you downstairs?”
“Yeah. I was on my way to surprise you with dinner when you texted. I know you’ve been swamped trying to build this API and figured you hadn’t taken the time to eat.”
It felt as if her heart had swelled to three times its normal size. After the years she’d spent settling for so far less than what she deserved, it was acts like this one that showed her how truly special Daniel was. It meant more than any expensive, grand gesture ever would.
She called down to the building’s concierge and gave the doorman permission to let him up. She considered remaining in her T-shirt and underwear, but decided to throw on a pair of shorts. As much as she wanted to hang an OPEN FOR BUSINESS sign on the rim of her panties, social conventions drilled into her by her very proper mother demanded she be a bit more refined.
She answered the door and refinement went out the window.
There was nothing particularly exceptional about a simple black T-shirt and jeans, but on Daniel Collins the harmless combination looked lethal. The soft jersey fabric contoured over his sculpted chest and subtly muscular biceps. His well-worn jeans clung deliciously to his hips, accentuating his slender yet powerful build. All she could think about was peeling them off.
“Congratulations,” Daniel said. “It seems to me we have a reason to celebrate.”
“I would say so,” Samiah replied. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth, then grabbed the hem of his T-shirt and pulled him into the condo.
She relieved him of the bag from her favorite Mexican restaurant, set it on the table in her small foyer, closed the door behind him, and pressed him against it.
“Okay, Collins, this can go one of two ways: If you’re not ready to take this next step, you can sit here and eat dinner while I go to my room and get myself off. Or, you can get me off—no, we can get each other off. Then we can eat tacos naked—there’s really no better way to eat them. But that’s only after we’ve both come at least twice. So, which works for you?”
“Coming twice,” he said. “Definitely coming twice. And then naked tacos.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Samiah said.
She captured his face in her hands and crushed her mouth to his. His tongue quickly delved past her lips, probing with hurried, insistent strokes. She had been anticipating this for weeks. Daydreaming about it. Craving it. If ever there was a reason to finally give in to this insane pull between them, celebrating this breakthrough with her app was as good as any.
Daniel’s hands went to her waist, then down to her ass, his caress wild and fervent. He clutched her tight, pulling her flush against him. Samiah’s nipples instantly hardened while everything else went soft and hot. She felt herself melting under the heat of his passionate response.
Her lips still connected with his, she started moving, dragging him toward her bedroom, stepping out of her shorts and flinging them toward the sofa as they made their way past the living room.
“This feels like rom-com movie sex,” she said against his lips.
He chuckled. “Is that a good thing?”
“As long as we don’t break any bones and end up in the emergency room.”
“What about the headboard?” he asked.
She pulled back slightly and stared at him. “Did I hear that correctly? Did you just promise me headboard-breaking sex?”
His brow lifted in the sexiest way imaginable. “You got a problem with that?”
Samiah flattened her palm against his chest and pushed him into her room.
“Get in the bed.”
He grabbed her by the waist and traveled with her down onto the bed, climbing up her body and planting kisses along her neck and shoulder. Samiah pulled his T-shirt over his head, then went to work on his jeans, unbuttoning them and ripping the zipper with such zeal she nearly broke it.
They shoved the rest of their clothes off, then worked as a team to roll on the condom he’d taken from his wallet.
“Stupid question time,” Daniel said as he braced his hands on either side of her head. “Are you sure about this?”
“That is a stupid question. The stupidest question ever.”
“I know, but I still have to hear you say it,” he said.
“Yes!” Samiah shouted. “Yes, please, give me the headboard-breaking sex you promised!”
He grinned. “I hope these walls are well insulated. I guess you’ll know by the way your neighbors look at you from now on.”
He dipped his head to capture her mouth. At the same time, he hooked his arm in the cradle behind her knee and brought her leg up as he plunged into her. Samiah bowed, her back lifting from the mattress, reaching for him.
Each stroke sent her careering closer to the edge, the intensity of the sensations spiraling through her so fierce they stole her breath away. She wrapped her other leg around his and began to move, pumping her hips in rhythm to his thrusts, closing her eyes and concentrating on the sharp beams of pleasure shooting across her skin like fireworks.
“This is…so good,” Samiah moaned. “So…good.”
She felt Daniel’s lips at her ear. “It’s about to get better,” he whispered.
He slipped out of her and traveled down her torso, peppering her stomach with kisses before hooking her legs over his shoulders and bathing the spot between her legs with his tongue. Her response was pure reflex, her muscles moving of their own volition. She clamped her thighs against his head and squeezed.
“Samiah—”
She released his head. “Oh, shit, I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t want to kill you.”
His eyes glittered with amusement, his grin so sexy she nearly climaxed at the sight of it.
“There are worse ways to go, but it’d be a damn shame if I died in the middle of this.” His brow quirked. “Now, can I finish down here?”
“Please,” she breathed.
His tongue was like magic, casting an exquisite spell on her with each delicious stroke. Every cell in her body tensed, her skin growing taut as her pleasure built just below the surface. Two strokes more and she blew apart, her orgasm so intense she shook with it.
“God, you’re beautiful when you do that,” Daniel said.
She felt beautiful. And sated.
But that didn’t mean she was ready to stop.
She reached for him and captured his mouth, wicked pleasure assaulting her as she tasted the difference between this kiss and the last. Was there anything hotter than experiencing the taste of herself in his mouth?
He changed out the condom, quickly rolling on another, then he charged back up her body, seizing her by the waist and twisting so that she was on top. Samiah straddled his hips, her eyes once again falling closed as she sank onto the length of his erection. She rolled her hips, undulating in a slow back and forth motion, relishing every slide of his body. But when he clasped his hands on her hips and started to guide her, she began to pump like the fate of all humanity rested on how vigorously she rode his dick.
It was fast and furious, this second journey to orgasm. The wave crashed into her with a force so strong her limbs went weak.
Samiah fell face forward, collapsing onto Daniel’s chest, her entire being replete with satisfaction. She felt his heart beating against her cheek and decided this was how she wanted to spend the next three hours. Forget naked tacos. The only thing she was hungry for was this feeling of total and complete contentment.
He shifted slightly so he could remove the condom, discarding it in a wad of tissues from the box on her bedside table. Then he settled back down, clasping a hand over her hip and tugging her toward him.
She propped her elbow up and cradled her cheek in her palm. “If this is what I have to look forward to every time I have a breakthrough with the app, expect quite a few breakthroughs, Mr. Collins.”
His deep, sexy chuckle traveled across her skin, a sinfully delicious sensation that teased her sensitive nerve endings.
“I’m not sure I like the thought of us sleeping together being tied to your app. What happens when you’re done with it?”
She laughed. “I’m not even in the neighborhood of done. Trust me, there are many more breakthroughs to be had before I get there.”
He peered at her, a skeptical arch to his brow. “I’m not sure I believe that.”
“Believe it,” Samiah said. “I hate admitting this, but I’m still so nervous about this entire thing.”
Nervous and scared. But confessing that would kill the mood for her.
“But why?” Daniel asked, clearly oblivious to the threat his questions had to her postsex buzz. His fingers drifted along her arm, moving in a languid caress. “You’re so damn good at your job. Why don’t you think you wouldn’t be just as good at the app?”
“Simple. I can’t control what happens with the app,” Samiah answered. “With the job—not just the job at Trendsetters, but any job I ever take—I know that I can succeed as long as I do what’s expected of me. And, because I am me, I’m not going to stop at just what’s expected. I’m going to go above and beyond.”
“Of course,” Daniel said.
“That’s just how I roll,” she said with a laugh. “But it’s different with the app. I can create the most amazing thing ever, but what if I can’t find an investor? What if I put in all this work, am lucky enough to find an investor, and then the app tanks?”
“You wouldn’t be the first person to experience that,” Daniel said.
“I know, but it…it scares me,” she said.
She swallowed hard, a thick lump of emotion catching in her throat as one of the most profound memories from her childhood came crashing to the surface.
“Back when I was in the third grade, just before my eighth birthday, I woke up one night and went into the kitchen for a Capri Sun.” She smiled. “They were supposed to be school snacks only, but I would sneak one from the refrigerator and blame it on my sister.” She blew out a deep breath. “I remember walking in the kitchen and hearing this strange sound I’d never heard before coming from the breakfast table. I walked just beyond the kitchen island and noticed my dad bent over, his arms folded atop the table, his head resting on them.
“He was crying.”
Silence stole across the room, the only sounds those of the light traffic on the city streets below.
“I asked him what was wrong, even though I knew I’d get scolded for being up past my bedtime. But instead of telling me to go back to bed, he brought me onto his lap and apologized to me. He said we wouldn’t be able to go to the zoo for my birthday because they needed to save money. He’d lost his job earlier that week.” She nestled against Daniel’s chest, resting her cheek on his smooth skin. “This all happened before he became a teacher,” she continued. “My dad went back to school in his thirties, got his degree, and started teaching just as I entered high school. Thankfully, it wasn’t at my high school,” she said with another laugh.
“But that night, when I saw my daddy crying like his heart had broken in two, it did something to me. He was Superman in my eyes. He was the person who put a Band-Aid on my cuts and kissed them when I cried. Seeing him in that state is something I will never, ever forget.
“That night, he told me to make sure I controlled every part of my life, because when you’re not in control awful things can happen and you can’t do anything about it. That’s why I need to control as much as possible.”
She’d worked enough of this out in her head some time ago, and knew that her rigid adherence to her checklist had something to do with this intense need she always had to be in control, but she’d never put voice to the words.
It was only recently that Samiah began to wonder if this was why she’d never pursued a real relationship before either. Because she couldn’t control the way someone felt about her. Just the prospect of finding herself in such a vulnerable state caused her breath to hitch.
“You may think you can’t control what happens with this app, Samiah, but you do. You control how it looks, how it operates, everything. And when you’re done with it, it’s going to be so brilliant that you won’t be able to field all the offers you’re going to get. You have nothing to be afraid of.”
He dipped his head and captured her mouth in a kiss that stole the breath from her lungs, and the fear that suddenly came over her had nothing to do with her app or her job or anything else.
The thing she feared for the most right now was her heart.